Box with rotating article support



Aug. 4, 1953 D. ORTENDAHL BOX WITH ROTATING ARTICLE SUPPORT 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 12, 1952 Aug. 4,1953 D. ORTENDAHL BOX WITH ROTATING ARTICLE SUPPORT 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 12, 1952 Aug. 4, 1953 D. ORTENDAHL 2,647,623

BOX WITH ROTATING ARTICLE SUPPORT Filed June 12, 1952 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR.

JZMJ c m/1f 4 TroRA/EV Aug. 4, 1953 D. ORTENDAHL BOX WITH ROTATING ARTICLE SUPPORT 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed June 12, 1952 j INVENTOR.

Patented Aug. 4, l953 BOX WITH ROTATING ARTICLE SUPPORT David Ortendahl, West Roxbury, Mass., assignor to Farrington Manufacturing Company, Boston, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application June 12, 1952, Serial No. 293,162

9 Claims. (01. 206-4513) Thisinvention relates to packaging and, more particularly, to the packaging of jewelry such as watches, bracelets and other-articles of personal adornment in such manner that they are automatically moved into a display position when the box is opened.

The invention has as a primary object the production of an article mounting assembly adapted for insertion in conventional jewelry-type hingedcover cases, the assembly being operative not only to lift automatically the mounted article to be displayed as the cover is opened but also to rotate it from its normal closed-box position so that the jewelry, for example, is turned from a closed-box position lying across the box to an open-box display position extending at right angles to the base of the box. In the case of a bracelet or a bracelet wrist watch, this causes the jewelry to be displayed in a vertically-extending position even though its height in this position is greater than the closed inside height of the box,'the automatic rotation lays the device down into the box as it is closed so that its long dimension extends horizontally, and it is accommodated inside the box with respect to both its length and width.

The above and other objects of the invention will in part be more fully described and in part be apparent from the following descriptions of typical embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a bracelet display box a having a hinged cover in open position with the article mounting support in display position and showing one type of structure for accomplishing the objects of this invention; I Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view similar to that of Fig. 2 but with the box closed;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail in perspective of certain of the partssome ofthe parts being broken away-when the box is in closed position; Fig, 5 is a similar enlarged detail in perspective of the same parts-again some being broken away-when the box is in open position;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a modified form of box showing a different embodiment of the The box-forming elements of boxes of this invention may be of any conventional kind comprising a hollow base It and a hollow cover [2, each having front, side and rear walls, and being hinged together along their rear wall edges as at a hinge line i l. As known in the art, the hinges may be provided with c-springs it which act to limit the opening movement to an arc of approximately and to provide a snap-shutting action. Such hin es form no part of this invention, being ol-d andin' commercial use. l l

In the Fig. 1 form, there is inserted in the base Ill of the box a background plate 20, the front portion of which lies adjacent the bottom of the base It. At the rear, the plate 20 has an inverted U-shaped platform 2| including a front leg 22 and a rear leg 23 and a top bridging portion. 24. The central portion of the platform stock is parallelly slit inwardly from the rear and the intervening portion is bent up to form a superimposed generally inverted U-shaped structure 25, including a front leg 26, rear leg 21, and a top bridging portion 28. The rear leg 21 has a central aper-' ture 29 while the forward leg 26 has a curved slot 30 including a generally vertically disposed section 3| and a generally horizontally disposed section 32, the edges of which act as a guide or cam surface. An oval-shaped jewelry mounting support 48 has a rear extension 42, best shown in Fig. 3, which extends through the slot 30 and terminates in a tab 43 which is journalled in the aperture 29, the latter acting as a crude form of universal bearing.

The article support 40 is automatically moved by a lifting element generally designated by the reference 50 which is riveted or otherwise attached to the cover [2 as at 5| so as to be movable therewith. The forward portion of this lifting element 56 is hook-shaped and has an aperture 52 which is of sufficient width to permit the element 50 to straddle the portion of the rear leg 21 in which the aperture 29 is formed.

As shown particularly well in Fig. 4, a free edge 53 of the lifting element 50 extends transversely underneath the article support extension 42 so that, as the cover is hinged from closed to open position, the edge 53 will engage a bottom edge 54 of the article support extension 42 and tilt the article support upwardly about an axis parallel to the hinge line l l. However, as the top of the extension i2 reaches the curve in the cam slot 38, continued lifting action by the lifting element 58 will cause the extension 42 to rotate bodily in aperture 29 about an axis extending in a direction which is generally normal to the direction of hinge line H! until the extension 42 is a disposed horizontally, assuming the position shown in Fig. 5. In order to aid this motion the edge 54 is bent slightly out of plane of extension 42, as shown. During this movement, the edge '54 moves underneath a down-camming element 56 which is integral with the lifting element to so that when the parts reach the position shown in Fig. 5, the underlip 51 of the down camming element 55 will be directly about the edge 54 of extension 42. As a consequence, when the cover starts to close, the lip 5.! will engage the edge 54 and initiate a turning motion of the article support is, at least until the extension 42 has passed around the curved portion of the slot, after which it drops or is moved by lip 51 down the veritcal portion ii of the camming slot into the position shown in Fig. 3.

As shown, because of the geometry of the parts in the embodiment shown, it is necessary to form an aperture 59 in the bridging-portion 28 of the support in order to prevent obstruction of relative movement between it and the element 56, the latter passing through the aperture Gil as the cover moves to open position as shown in Fig. .5. Also. it will he understood that, while the background plate 20, the U-shaped platform 2| and the U-shaped structure 25 are shown as formed integrally from the same material, and

any one or all of them may be separately formed from a difierent material or from different materials.

In Figs. 6 and 7, I have shown a modified form of box which has differently shaped base and cover members Illa and We but which is similarly hinged along a hinge line M. The hinge may be provided with a C-spring it (not shown in Figs. 6 and 7), similar to that shown in Figs. 1-3, for limiting hinging movement of the cover and base to 90. support 69 has a rear extension 9.2a, the bottom end of which is seated for limited universal mo tion in an aperture at the top of a support 10 which extends vertically upwardly and is fixed to the base lilo. The bearing portion of the rear extension member 62a has the shape of a spool, as shown at H, and the aperture F2 in support '10 is in such dimensions that the article support 49 may be tilted upwardly to a position shown in Figs. 6 and '7.

Fixedly mounted on the rear extension member 42a is a pinion M which mesh-es with two curved racks. One of these racks E5 is formed on the inner edge of a standard it: which is fixedly mounted in the base ifia. The other rack l? is mounted on the inner edge of a standard '38 which is fixedly mountedpn the cover member [2a, the two standards it and i8 being so spaced relative to the location of the aperture '52 that the two racks engage opposite sides of the pinion 14. For clarity, the standard 16 is shown broken away in Fig. 7.

In this device, therefore, as the cover member I'm is lowered onto the base Eta, the movement of the standard T8 with the cover relative to the standard 18 will result in turning the pinion l i clockwise, as seen in Fig. 6, with a simultaneous lowering of the pinion down the rack on standard It, as permitted by the universal mounting of the rear extension member 420., so that the article support 40, as in the case of Figs. 1-3, is turned into a horizontal position lying in the enclosed box.

Figs. 8 and 9 show an embodiment having a similar standard Nb and rearwardly extending extension member 422) on the article support 40,

In this embodiment, the article but, in this case, instead of having the rack and pinion arrangement of the embodiment shown in Figs. 6 and 7, the base is provided with a standard which has an aperture 8| and slot 82 and the cover member [2b is provided with a standard 84 having an aperture 85 and slot 86. The two standards 80 and 84 are spaced laterally and engage in their apertures a. cross-piece 81 which is fixed centrally to the rear extension member 4%. This cross-piece 8'! is mounted for tilting and rotating movement relative to both the standard 8.9 and, the standard *84 by use of the same spool-like universal form of mounting which holds the rear extension member 4212 and described in connection with Figs. 6 and '7. In

this embodiment, however, there is considerable lost motion between each end of the cross-piece 81 and the standard in which it is mounted, so that as the cover member 121) is closed the lefthand end of cross-piece 81, as seen in Fig. 9, moves downwardly to a position laterally opposite but below the right-hand end, as shown in Fig. 9, cf the cross-piece. Because of the movement of the cross-piece 8'! during the. closing of the box, the rear extension member Mb is not only lowered at its front end to also lower the article support 4i] but it is simultaneously rotated through an arc of substantially by the turning movement imparted to it by the crosspiece 8'? turning the article support to the position indicated iragmentarily by dot-and-dash lines in Fig. 8.

The devices of Figs. 6 and 7 and Figs. 3 and 9 are thus different forms of automatic means for imparting both a tilting movement and s. rotating movement to an article support as an incident to the opening of the box. As in the case of the other embodiments, a C-spring is should be included in the embodiment of Figs. 8 and 9, to prevent the box from openin more than substantially 99.

It will be understood that certain parts of the devices may be covered with decorative surfacing material, such as cloth, e. g. the background plate 29 and article support 49, and the cover may be provided with a suitable lining.

This is a continuation-in-part of my co-pending application Serial No. 213,753 filed March 3, 1951 and allowed December 13, 1951, now abandoned.

I claim:

1. In a display box having base and cover members connected together for movement from a closed position with said members in substantially parallel relation to an open position with said members disposed in angularly related planes, an article support mounted inside said box for pivotal movement about an axis extending in a direction normal to the direction of the intersecting line of said planes, and cooperating means on said article support and at least one of said members for pivoting said article support about said axis as said box is opened by movement of said members from said closed position to said open position.

2. A display box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cooperating means include elements mounted respectively on said base member and said article support.

3. A display box as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cooperating means are cam surfaces.

4. A display box as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cooperating means are a pinion and rack.

5. In a display box having base and cover members connected at a hinge line along one side of said box, an article support mounted inside said box for pivotal movement about an axis extending in a direction normal to the direction of said hinge line, and cooperating means on said article support and at least one of said members for pivoting said article support about said axis as said box is opened by movement of said members about said hinge line.

6. In a display box having base and cover members connected at a hinge line along one side of said box, an article support mounted inside said box for tilting movement about an axis parallel to said hinge line, and for pivotal movement about an axis extending in a direction normal to the direction of said hinge line, and cooperating elements on said article support and said members for tilting and pivoting said articie support about said axes as said box is opened by movement of said members about said hinge line.

7. In a display box having base and cover members connected at a hinge line along one side of said box, an article support mounted inside said box for tilting movement about an axis parallel to said hinge line and for pivotal movement about an axis extending in a direction normal to the direction of said hinge line, a lifting element mounted on said cover member and movable therewith for tilting said article support about said parallel axis as said box is opened by movement of said members about said hinge line, and cooperating means on said article support and at least one of said members for pivoting said article support about said normal axis as it is tilted.

In a display box having a base and a cover hingedly connected to the back of said base, an article support mounted on said box for tilting motion relative thereto, a lifting element mounted on said cover and movable therewith for tilting said article support as said cover is moved from closed to open position relative to said base, a cam surface for rotating said article support as it is tilted, and cooperative doWn-camming means on said lifting element and article support cooperating at least to initiate article support return motion to its original position as said cover is closed.

9. In a display box having a base and a cover hingedly connected to the back of said base, spaced upright front and rear supports near the rear of said box, a curved camming slot in the forward support, a bearing in the rear support, an article support having a generally vertically disposed extension passing through said camming slot and journalled in said bearing, a lifting element mounted on said cover and movable therewith and extending inwardly under said extension to tilt said article support upwardly, and, in cooperation with siad camming slot, to cause it to rotate as said cover is moved from closed to open position relative to said base and downcamming means on said lifting element cooperating at least to initiate article support return motion to its original position as said cover is moved from open to closed position relative to said base.

DAVID ORTENDAHL.

No references cited. 

